An engineer who fears he lost a winning Euromillions lottery ticket says his life has been destroyed.

Ian Galtress bought two tickets for the draw at the same time, and one was one digit off matching a raffle code that would have won £1m.

After losing the other ticket – and then watching in horror as organisers Camelot appealed for a missing Wirral winner – he has become overrun with anxiety over what he could have lost.

To win a Euromillions Raffle draw entrants have to defy estimated odds of 9.2m–to –one by matching a randomly generated code at the bottom of each Euromillions ticket.

The winner is guaranteed £1m, regardless of whether they win or lose in the main draw.

Unlucky Ian, who lives in Bidston, knows the ticket he bought for the July 27, 2012 draw and gave to his girlfriend was just the final digit away from scooping the prize.

Believing the numbers are sequential – meaning there is a chance his number was just a single digit off his girlfriend’s – he has spent the last 20 months living with the fact he may have thrown away £1m.

The 41-year-old told the ECHO: “It’s ruined my life. I’ve lost lots of weight. I’m not sleeping because of the anxiety in me.

“I’ve got this permanent feeling of anxiety and nervousness in my stomach – I just can’t switch off.

“I feel like I have been ripped off, robbed, or kicked to the curb. I just want to rebuild my life.”

The money would be enough to buy a season ticket at Tranmere Rovers for the next 2,873 years, spend almost a decade in a luxury double room at Wirral’s Hillbark Hotel, or buy a five-bedroom home in exclusive Caldy.

There are procedures in place through which entrants who have lost winning tickets can still claim their money.

Providing the claimant can provide details of when and where they bought the ticket, and what numbers from the main Euromillions draw they chose, Camelot can release the winnings.

After 20 months of worrying about the ticket he bought in Eastham Village, the numbers are etched in Ian’s memory: 5, 15, 22, 31, 47. His lucky stars were 1 and 6.

The former Stanlow worker claimed he had passed these details onto Camelot, hoping they would be able to tell him if he was the lucky winner.

But after months of trying he said he had not received a definitive answer – fuelling his misery and uncertainty.

To make matters worse, months after the draw in question, Camelot issued public appeals revealing a winning ticket had been bought in Wirral and no-one had claimed it.

Even if Ian was a winner, the date to claim has long gone – meaning the unclaimed £1m has been donated to the National Lottery good causes fund.

But now he just wants the situation to be resolved so he can move on with his life.

He said: “All I want is a definitive answer saying it is me or not.

“That would be brilliant. I just wish it wasn’t me with the trauma it has caused.”

A spokeswoman for Camelot was not able to discuss Ian’s case for confidentiality reasons.

She said: “While we sympathise with anyone who loses a ticket, National Lottery players are responsible for looking after their tickets – just as they would take responsibility for any other purchases they make.

“However, we always want to pay prizes out to the rightful ticket owner and so offer a service whereby we may, at our discretion, consider the validity of claims on stolen, lost or destroyed tickets – but only if the player has notified Camelot within 30 days of the draw in question.”

The spokeswoman did, however, tell the ECHO they would contact Ian in the coming days to give him a definitive answer and explain what checks have been made on his behalf.